Phew! Busy Morning!

Wow! I've been busy lately.

First off, I paved the area in front of the greenhouse and it looks great! Seriously, it looks fabulous! I then waited until this pay and bought more pavers of the same colour and half-paved the other section I have my eye on. I could only afford 10 pavers this time, but that's okay, I'll get the rest next pay. 

Today, I ended up at my folks' house asking Dad if he could help me move the large pot from out the front to out the back. Well, I was in a grumbly mood (I know why, and didn't mean to be snappy at them; and it wasn't related to anything they said). Well, while I was repotting a small-leaf jade - which had rooted itself into the ground - I spotted that Dad had arrived to help me out. 
Well, we moved the large pot, with the Dracaena Plant still in the pot, out the back and put it in the place it's going to stay. Dad laughed, saying I have to stop buying big pots. I told him that I had the really big rose pots since 2013, and they're being moved to be reused for the Agapanthus... he said that's a good idea.

Otherwise I've been thinking about what else to save for this year. And I have to replace the lights in the garden, get a few more statues (when I find the right ones for the right price) and work on the street sign.  Otherwise, the garden looks good so far. Until my next post, happy gardening.

Indoor Gardens

I've been a big fan of terrariums for years; and it's taken me time to get in work their mojo successfully. But once you do get into that world of the enclosed garden, you become addicted to them very quickly; and you look for places around your home to put one.

I've got two in my house, and their in the most-used room in the house - my living room and my bedroom. And the best thing is that they're a set and forget kinda garden. 

My first one is made from Italian Glass; and they're hard to come by and very expensive in this day and age of the throw away society. And so, when you're looking for a terrarium like this, you have make sure it's properly sealed and the cork in the top is working. If not, it's good to know where to find another one. Here in Brisbane, there's only one company at Bardon (behind the Mt Coot-tha Lookout) that supplies corks for bottles. And you have to take in terrariums to be fitted. They work from a home and they're well worth the drive too! I bought mine in 2014, and ended up having lunch at the Mt Coot-tha Lookout Restaurant; and what a place to chill out at! I loved it - and it turned out to be a great day out just to buy that cork.

But when you do get your terrarium sorted out with the right plants - and not ones that flower otherwise the whole thing rots - you'll find your fascination for that thing will be big. When you're rugged up in your Winter woollies, it'll be warm, moist and raining inside that bottle, like a real rainforest does in the tropics. So long it's not in direct sunlight, the terrarium will survive perfectly.

And the history of these things goes further back than people think. A lot of people think these were invented in the 1960's; but really they just came into popularity in that decade. They were created in the mid-1800's through a scientist, Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, who left one of his enclosed gardens unattended and one of his plants grew and threw spores. This turned out to be a great discovery about these things he had gotten built for him; as he lived a sheltered life in the UK. Well, that's what I've heard and read about. 

A lot of people are getting back into terrariums as people don't have a lot of room for outdoor gardens anymore; but they're not only sealed ones, you can have open ones as well. I don't see the point in having an open one, as to me they're just too much like pot plants. So, I'd rather have a sealed terrarium and watch it to its thing over the years... or just ignore it and it'll become its own little rainforest as I live my life around it. 

So, do you have a terrarium? If so, how big - or little - is it? Is it open or sealed? How long have you been interested in them? Until my next post, happy gardening!

Winter Planning

Well, it's Autumn and I'm right into planning what I'm going to do with my garden this Winter. Yes, I plan, I have to seeing I'm living from pay to pay.

Okay, last year, I spent so much money on the back yard - renovating it - and now, it's all about maintenance. It's all about making it stay the way I want it to, repotting, updating and making sure the Agapanthus doesn't strangle itself in the pots they're in.

So, I'm bringing the large rose pots from out the front to out the back and using them for just that plant this Winter. Yep, I'm splitting up the Agapanthus this Winter, and it'll all flower by next Summer - if not? Well, it'll do it late 2020. 

Then, I'll get two bigger, taller pots for the Lime Tree (which is really spreading its wings) and the Dracaena plant to let them really do their thing this year. I'm hoping they'll work out this year. 

Out the front, I'll get two more bags of ice white stones into the garden and make it look better, more even and pretty. It'll hide the roots of the Small Leaf Jade and make my townhouse look prettier and house proud and tidier (I know, it's pride thing for me but that's how it goes). 

Well, that's the plans this year. It's not much, but I'm getting in and saving some money for it all. Well, until my next post, happy gardening! 

Autumn Arrives

Well, it's finally cooling down here in Australia - and it came with a bang and not a whimper! One day it was stinking hot, the next there was a cold enough night for us to pull out our duvets and put on our Winter pajamas. 

Yeah, it was that fast... it showed up that quickly that it's also begun snowing in the Australian Alps too!

This has gotten me to really look into the garden faster than I normally would. Today, I mowed the lawn; before it rains tomorrow, and then I hacked back the Mock Orange too. It only flourished twice this year due to us not really having any storm season - which is unfortunate, because we didn't get much rain over Summer. 

I'm looking forward to getting in and fixing up and maintaining the garden this Winter while I save up for something else I really want which isn't for the garden... yep, it's gonna be a fun thing for me.

Anyway, I've got flowers popping open in the greenhouse, there's new Oregano and Thyme and I've clipped back a few plants to stop them taking over sun space from others underneath them. This will help them kick forward next Summer.

I'm going to repot some of the ones I've clipped back into bigger pots I've got laying around the place and start the others into the ones which are left from those I've repotted (does that make sense? I hope so!). 

Well, that's my Winter. It's all maintenance around the garden, seeing my garden got the much-needed facelift last year. and I'm really looking forward to it too! Until my next post, happy gardening!